I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for sending control information in a communication network.
II. Background
Communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, data, messaging, broadcast, etc. A communication network may include a number of network entities that can support communication for a number of user equipments (UEs). The communication network may receive packets from a given UE and may forward the packets toward a server or a far-end UE. A packet may also be referred to as a data packet, a datagram, a transport block, etc. The communication network may also receive packets from the server or far-end UE and may forward the packets toward the UE. Each entity in a communication path from a transmitting end to a receiving end may be referred to as a node. A node may be a UE or a network entity, e.g., a base station, a router, a gateway, a server, etc.
It may be desirable to send control information from one node to another node in a communication network. A packet may be defined with a field of a suitable size to carry the control information. A node may then send the control information in the designated field of the packet. A larger field may allow more control information to be sent but may also result in more overhead per packet, which may be wasteful if control information is sent intermittently. Conversely, a smaller field may result in less overhead per packet but may also limit the amount of control information that can be sent.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to efficiently send control information in a communication network.